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News
Performances of compositions
Selected press for Gao Ping's music
Links to articles about Gao Ping
 
News:

2010

On August 2nd, Gao Ping gave a composition workshop at NZ school of music, Victoria University in Wellington.

July 1st Solo recital at the Lunch Time Recital Series at the Great Hall, Christchurch. Music by Chopin, Gao Ping and Eve de Castro Robinson.

May 30th, Gao Ping gave premiere performance of NZ composer Eve de Castro Robinson’s new work, And the Garden Was Full of Voices-a sound-cycle for vocalizing pianist, at the SOUNZtender concert in the Illot Theatre in Wellington Town Hall.

May 23rd,duo recital with pianist Michael Houstoun at the Platform Festival, University of Canterbury. Program includes John Psathas’ Motet, Debussy’s Six Epigraphes, Ravel’s La Valse, and Gao Ping’s The Mountain.

May 25, Premiere of Perhaps-Song of Burial II for voice and ensemble by Emma Johnston and Silencio Ensemble in Great Hall, Christchurch, NZ.

April 23rd, Solo piano recital at the Kawai Recital Series, Queensland Conservatorium, Brisbane, Australia.. Music included Chopin, Ravel, and Shostakovich, a premiere of Gao Ping Perhaps-song of burial and an Australian premiere of Night Alley.

April 12th-May 11th,Artist-in-Residence for 4 weeks in Queensland Conservatorium, Brisbane, Australia.. Activities included performing, teaching, coaching, and seminars.

Guest appearances as a composer and a performer at the Encounter Music Festival (6-9 May, which celebrates 200 years China-Australia relationship.

February, received the CANZ (Composer’s Association of New Zealand) Trust Funds Award for composers.


2009

Dec. guest recital and master-class at the Conservatory of Music, Hunan Normal University.

Dec. Guo Yin Tang Lecture series at China Conservatory of Music in Beijing presented Gao Ping in a lecture on the subject of differences between Chinese and western music and contemporary trends of dealing with these differences.

July. Piano Quintet “Mei Lan Zhu Ju” received premiere performances in Wellington and Christchurch at the CHCH International Arts Festival. Pianist John Chen, violinist Wilma Smith, and the T’ang Quartet from Singapore performed the piece along side with music by Schnittke and Dvorak. The work was subsequently performed by the same musicians at the Macao International Arts Festival in October.

On 7th of July 2009, the NZ Trio premiered Gao Ping’s new work “Su Xie Si Ti” or “Four Sketches” for piano trio in the Great Hall during the Music’09 Music Education Conference, which commissioned the piece.

On June 14th, Gao Ping played a duo recital with Edith Salzmann at the Capital Norma University with music by Gao Ping and Ceasar Franck. This concert is the first event of a new relationship between the University of Canterbury and the Chinese institution.

Waiteata Music Press (Victoria University, Wellington) published Gao Ping’s 2008 “Questioning the Mountains” for violin and piano. The work was written in remembrance of the victims of the May ’08 earthquake in his home region-Sichuan.

Gao Ping’s piano score “Blue Mask” (2002) was published by Peer Musik (Germany). The score is in an album of piano music called “Beyond Blues” which comes with a CD performed by Dutch pianist Marcel Worms.

In Jan. 09, Gao Ping finished his Piano Quintet, “mei, lan, zhu, ju” which is a commission from the Christchurch International Arts Festival in 2009. The piece will be premiered during the festival by pianist John Chen and the T’ang string quartet from Singapore in August.

On April 28th, GP played a solo recital in the Great Hall in Christchurch. Program includes a sonata by Haydn, 4 Preludes and Fugues by Shostakovich, and set of pieces by Ravel, as well as Gao Weijie’s 1987 “Autumn Wilderness”. GP also improvised on Haydn’s name.

On April 1st, GP played a recital with cellist Edith Salzman in the Adams International Cello Festival in Christchurch. The program included Sonata No.1 and No.2 by GP and Orion by Toru Takemitsu.

 


2008


Nov. 2008, GP recorded Gao Weijie’s 1987 piano piece Autumn Wilderness for a CD/DVD project “Chinese Pianist Playing Chinese Piano Music” in Beijing. His own 2006 “Night Alley” was included in the series as well, performed by Chinese pianist, Tong Bo.

“Bright Light and Cloud Shadows” for string quartet was performed by the New Zealand String Quartet on their 2008 European tour of the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands.

Gao Ping plays and conducts in Professor Gao Weijie’s celebration concert for his 70th birthday in the Beijing Concert Hall, December 2008.

Gao Ping was the Composer-in-Residence at the 19th Port Fairy Music Festival in Australia in October 2008. He performed a recital which included his piano music as well as his 2nd Sonata for Cello and Piano with cellist Ewen Bramble. He also gave a public talk with the festival’s artistic director Stephen Mcintyre and Australian pianist Anna Goldsworthy.

Gao Ping’s music (partial) for Rain of the Children, a film by Vincent Ward, won the Qantas Award for the best score.

Night Alley and Just a Moment received US premiere by pianist Sheng Yuan in the International Piano Festival at the Mannes School of Music, New York, July 2008.

Bright Light and Cloud Shadows
was performed by the New Zealand String Quartet in the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington in Oct. 2008.

Gao Ping was a guest performer and composer at the Music08 in Cincinnati, June 2008. He performed a recital which included piano music by himself, Jack Body and William Bocolm. He teamed up with Frederic Rzewski in a performance in his The Mountain for 2 pianos. He also played his father Gao Weijie’s The Way for violin and piano with Italian violinist Duccio Ceccanti. He gave a composition master-class.

Gao Ping performed in the Kita-Kyushu Chamber Music Festival in Japan, June 2008. He played a duo recital with violinist Rieko Suzuki which included Mozart, Ravel, Takemitsu, Poulenc, Gao Ping and Gao Weijie. He also took the piano part of a performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in the festival’s final concert.

Gao Ping performed in two charity concerts for the victims of the Sichuan Earthquake in 2008. The first took place in Tokyo in June, with violinist Rieko Suzuki among other musicians. The second concert took place in the Te Papa Museum in Wellington in August.

The Platform Arts Festival in Christchurch presented “The Storyteller and Other Musical Tales”, a concert of Gao Ping’s chamber music, in May, 2008. The program included “The Story Teller”, a half-hour long sextet, as well as several piano works by Gao Ping.

Piano Concerto
premiered in the Made in NZ concert in the Wellington Town Hall in May 2008. The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Kenneth Young, with the composer as piano soloist. Read the NZ Listener's review here.

Concert tour of Japan, including an appearance at the Kita-Kyushu Chamber Music Festival, a concert in Tokyo to raise relief funds for the Sichuan Earthquake. June 2008.

Concerts at Yokohama Museum with violinist Rieko Suzuki. April 2008

Concert with Gao Ping's music including sextet The Story Teller, and vocalizing piano suite Concealed Kisses in the Great Hall, Christchurch, in the Platform Arts Festival.

Concert in the Great Hall featuring Gao Ping and Canterbury music students, playing Gao Ping's music including a first performance of Questioning the Mountains for violin and piano. Also performed was Shostakovich's Piano Quintet.

Charity concert in Te Papa National Musuem in Wellington, raising funds for the rebuilding of Mianyang College for Arts, which was damaged by the Sichuan earthquake.

Distant Voices for piano won First Prize in the 4th Chinese Piano Music Competition in Hong Kong, January 2008.

 


2007


Jannes Rattya, Finish accordionist performed Ping’s “Dance Fury-homage to Astor Piazzolla” (arr. Rattya) in Shomrei Torah Temple in Santa Rosa, USA, Musicum, Great Hall in Salzburg, Wien Modern festival, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Sakaimoto, Matsue, Japan, 2007.

Night Alley for solo piano, commissioned by the 4th China International Piano Competition, was performed by all 12 semi-finalists during the competition in October 2007. The competition was held in the coastal city of Xiamen. GP was the guest of honor, presenting a lecture on the new piece.


Bright Light and Cloud Shadows for string quartet was played by the New Zealand String Quartet on its tour of the USA in November 2007.

Dance Fury-homage to Astor Piazzolla was recorded by New Zealand pianist Michael Houstoun on a CD released by Rattle Records in December 2007.

Three concerts with violinist Rieko Suzuki in Tokyo, featuring music by Messiaen, Ravel, Poulenc, Brahms, Chick Corea, and Gao Ping, collaborating with three Japanese visual artists.

Gao Ping was invited by Mrs. Irino to give a talk on his recent music at the JML.

Gao Ping played his own works and Jack Body’s Sarajevo in a concert featuring New Zealand and Sichuan composers at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music, December 2007.

Gao Ping gave a lecture-recital in the Mian-Yang School of Arts, Sichuan, China. He was appointed as a guest lecturer in the school.

Duo concert with Rieko Suzuki featuring works by Mozart, Brahms, Ravel, Gao Ping, and Qu Xiao-song, at the Capital Normal University in Beijing, November 2007.

The Mountain for two pianists was performed by Frederic Rzewski and Ursula Oppens at the Berkeley Edge Fest, June 2007.

Provided parts of the soundtrack for Vincent Ward’s new feature film “Rain of the Children”, October 2007.

Provided improvised piano music for a New Zealand silent film show in the Christchurch International Arts Festival, July 2007.

Performed in two concerts with piano ensemble works, including Darius Milhaud’s rarely-heard suite for 4 pianos “Paris”, in the Auckland International Piano Festival, June 2007.

During a week as artist-in-residence at the Queensland Conservatorium in Brisbane in March 2007, GP played a piano recital with works by Gao Wei-jie, Gao Ping, Shostakovich and Poulenc, in the Kawai Piano Recital Series, and directed a concert of improvised music based on Chinese revolutionary songs with a student ensemble.

Solo recital with works by Gao Wei-jie, Poulenc, Ross Carey, and Gao Ping in the Lunchtime Series at the Great hall, the Arts Centre, Christchurch, 9 March 2007.

Conducted two premiere performances of a scene from Fatal Desire (with Contemporary Music Ensemble Korea), a chamber opera by Shen Na Lin during the Asia Pacific Music Festival (ACL), February 2007.

Premiered New Zealand composer Ross Carey’s Great Wall, a piano cycle for vocalizing pianist, at the Asia Pacific Music Festival (ACL), February 2007.

 


2006



Two recitals in Beijing and Chengdu, China, with Japanese violinist Rieko Suzuki, December 2006.


Played the piano solo in the premiere performances of Chinese composer Qu Xiao-song’s Cursive for piano, and three percussionists in Shanghai, November 2006.

Participated as a keyboardist in the first China performance of John Zorn’s Cobra in D-22, Beijing, December 2006.

 


 

 

Performances of compositions:


Piano Concerto premiered in the Made in NZ concert in the Wellington Town Hall in May 2008. The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Kenneth Young


Premiere performances of Gao Ping's new string quartet, Bright Light and Cloud Shadows by the New Zealand String Quartet in the Adam International Chamber Music Festival in Nelson in January 2007 and at the Asia Pacific Music Festival (ACL), in February 2007

The Mountain for two pianos, performance at the Banff Centre for Music in Canada, January 2007

Contemplating Tango for violin and piano, by Isin Cakmakcioglu and Danae Killian in a Melbourne Composer's League concert in Melbourne, Australia, October 2006

Distant Voices for piano, performance at Carnegie Hall in NYC by pianist Wen Lei, December 2006

Distant Voices for piano, performance in the International Piano Institute and Festival in Mannes School of Music, NYC, by pianist Sheng Yuan, July 2006

 


 

 

Selected press for Gao Ping’s music (2006-07):


"...he has written a work characterised by all the qualities for which his music is so admired internationally: a clear grasp of structure, an intriguing assimilation of Chinese and Western musical idioms, a fine ear for textural subtlety at all dynamic levels and a keen appreciation of the sensuous beauty of sound."

NZ Listener
(read full review here)


The Mountain, a superb and often sweepingly beautiful work for two pianos composed in 2004 by Gao Ping.”
San Francisco Chronicle

"Bright Light and Cloud Shadows gives a more delicate sonic impression...Gao creates string sonorities from an imagined palette of pastels painting in gently evolving textures and with tender long-breathed brush strokes.”
Washington Post

"Dance Fury by Gao Ping...virtuosic and original, the crowd ate it up.”
Cincinnati Enquirer

"[Gao] Ping’s The Mountain for two pianos was by far the more interesting. It contains a powerful central section, a simultaneous passacaglia and fugue.”
San Francisco Classical Voice

"Music which wants to be heard with ears of a child, full of wonder and amazement…. deep and vulnerable. It is becoming increasingly clear that he is possibly the archetype of the contemporary composer.”
Tokafi, Germany

"The man with 1001 tone colors. Here is tasteful and sincere music built to last.”
New Zealand Listener

"I strongly recommend this disc [Gao Ping’s "Chamber Music" on the NAXOS label] to those who like to get more familiar with contemporary music but are still a little hesitant.”
Klassikmagazin, Germany

"No-one ends a piece with such diaphanous delicacy as Gao.”
Ian Dando, CANZONA (the yearbook of the Composers Association of New Zealand)

"Gao Ping plays his piece for piano and voice, Concealed Kisses, with dazzling virtuosity and sparkling wit.”
New Zealand Geographic, January 2007
 

 

 

Links to articles about Gao Ping


http://app.griffith.edu.au/03/griffith-news-now/?p=12466
http://www.tokafi.com/15questions/15-question-to-gao-ping
www.griffith.edu.au/school/qcgu/about/industry_and_community/resources/doc/gao-ping.doc

 

 

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